Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1887-08-18
A Campaign Temperance Poem
BIZ REV. c. REswIcK.

song,
On harps nttuned to please the mingle
throng,
Turn we their offspring of gentler age,
Our powers Of soul and body to engage,
The lost to seek, the erring to reclaim
And lift the fallen from their depths o
shame.
More than hundred years their sounds
have run,
Fresh mereies bringing with each rising
sun,
Since first our couptrv's flag began tc
wave
In mAtehless triumph DER our eountry's
brave;
And yet our country's brave are not all
free.
As the proud sons of noble sires should
be;
But many of them have wore than slaves
become,
Their blood bought birthrights having sold
for rum,
And now they wander north, as still they
must,
To quench thirst already grown to bust.
Which only fercer burns with each fresh
draught,
That from the intoxicating bowl is quaffed,
And which can never be assuaged with
swill
From all the proud resources of the still.
And who are these that from our firesides
stray
Their unemployed hours to while away,
Mid scenes of revelry and drunken brawls
In slip slop groggeries and billiard halls
Where only babbiinR lips the inmates hear
An tongues profane salute the listening
ear;
Where each must drink and all his COM
rades treat,
And every now aud then the dose repeat,
Till most profoundly drenched and lin.
bered up
They all ut length reluctant leave the cup,
Converting the treat from wine to threats
and blows
And ending in sleeping off repose,
Ali who are these that thus their fireside
leave
And thus their truest friends so sadly erieve
By turning where such youths should neve,
turn
And learning what such youths should
never learn2
Our sons, the hope of our declining years
The subject of our prayers and frequent
tears,
The little ones Of days forever gone,
So fondly reared from children's earliest
dawn
By loving hands that never tired grew
So long as aught remained for them to do
To meet the wants of each succeeding day
And all its tears benignly wipe away.
Yes, thu Sc are they that now to manhood
grown
Their gratitude to parents thus have
shown
By leaving mother, father, sister dear
And all the tenderest ties of home for
beeri
But. these are not the only ones that roam
From dearest friends and tenderest ties OF
home,
To dream imaginary cares in gin
And plunge both soul and body into sin.
A sadder story yet there is to learn
That fathers also from their children turn.
And husbands from companions ever true
The downward road to sin and death pur.
sue
In vain the wife her magic arts may ply
With pleading heart and deftly streaming
eye;
In vain the children, once their fathers
pride,
Cling to his neck and linger near his side;
He will not hear, they struggle but in vain
The husband and the father to regain.
Grim want with haggard form and sullen
Now lifts his gloomy frowns upon the
scene,
Where peace and plenty hitherto had dwelt
And shame and sorrow never had been
felt.
The wife cast off, dishonored and abused,
Her childrens wants and hers alike refused,
Must hence submit, their destinies the
same,
To live in wretchedness and die in shame.
Aud all forsooth because fellow man
May sell the drugs that make the bloated
clan,
Their money taking which of right should
go
To save their homes from actual want and
woe.
Shall this still be, lest hAply some poor
wight
Should be deprived of what he calls his
right
To buy and use, or give away his beer.
Or other drinks his friends may choose to
sharef
And shall saloons their license still retain
To sell their drugs and hoard awav their
gain,
Regardless of the ruin they have wrought,
The want and misery to our families
brought
Regardless of the murderers they have
made,
And rakes and criminals of every grade;
Regardless of the tears BIZ mothers shed
And loving wives that early mourn their
dead?
With all these ills TO face shall rum still
sell
And still drag i's long line of drunkards
down To hell?
Heaven says mol and thousands of our
earth,
Our daughters and cur sons of mobiles
birth,
Our wives, our mothers far away and nigh,
ALI join in one loud, long and piercing cry,
Away with such curse from earth below
Let stills and erog<hops altogether go.